Bring Quality Back into Buddhist Pursuits

In his speech to a large crowd of Tibetans from Tibet given on Mar
27, 2006 at the end of his Monlam teaching in Dharamsala, the Dalai
Lama spoke passionately about several issues, one of which was about
the need for the concerned Tibetans and Buddhists to bring primary
focus on quality when it comes to religious education, discoursing, or
practice. The following are relevant excerpts, as translated by the
editor.

Most of us Tibetans are poor when it comes to standards of
knowledge. Speaking from the religious point of view, there are in our
society of six million Tibetans people with astonishing degree of
genuine faith in Buddhism. Buddhism is profound, became widespread and
has been propagated from generation to generation and has therefore
progressed and flourished. As a result, today too, the Snowland of
Tibet is almost the only place where on the world stage the entirety of
the Mahayana, Hinayana and Tantric teachings of Buddhism could be fully
preserved, and where in this world the religious heritage of the Great
Nalanda University could be fully kept, defended and spread without a
whiff of contamination. In particular, in terms of keeping, defending
and spreading the teaching and practice of Buddhism in an integrated
manner, Tibet has the most profound tradition and curriculum. Taking
the Tibetan society as a whole, the Snowland of Tibet has, through
generations over a millennium, been a race of people who preserved
Buddhism by keeping, defending and spreading it. Nevertheless, among
the general public, it is obvious that knowledge of Buddhism is
extremely poor.

In terms of the religious activities in our ecumenical monasteries in
Tibet, the main consideration should not be given to the numerical
strength of the monks and nuns in them; what is more relevant is that
it is extremely important to ensure good qualities of training and
discipline in them. Otherwise, if the standards of study and training
are poor and the state of discipline too is nothing to talk about,
large populations of monks and nuns would only mean too large numbers
of such monks and nuns, which is of no help. Good quality is extremely
important.

I some times see in the Tibetan community big efforts being seemingly
made to enlarge the numbers of monks and nuns. I do not see this as
particularly important. To speak bluntly, we do raise protests over the
existing dangers of Tibetans becoming a minority in our own land. The
danger is real. We also have considerable international support on
this. In a period of such great change, when the Tibetan population is
dangerously small, we ourselves would seem to be contributing further
to the declining number by raising the population of monks and nuns to
the point that there would be too many of them. Therefore, if despite
the fact that the Tibetan population is already too small, the number
of monks and nuns is raised further, the result will surely be a
further decline of our population.

We also need to think about the situation in places like Ladakh. It is
a failure resulting from extreme short-sightedness that there is an
impression that in the ecumenical monasteries both in and outside Tibet
great attention is being paid to an imperative to raise the number of
monks and nuns, with seeming shortage of focus on the training and
discipline of the monks and nuns.

Therefore, unless we think by paying attention to all aspects of the
situation today, this is definitely not an era of progress for us. We
all should think on the basis of having looked in all directions in our
back and front, and to our left and right. It is certainly not a period
in which we can make decisions solely on the basis of what we actually
see before us. In any case, it is extremely important to uphold the
quality of training and discipline as more important than the number of
monks and nuns.

Like I said recently, when teaching on Choejug (Bodhisattva way of
Life), being familiar with the Sutra and Tantra texts alone won't do.
Ritualistically beating drums, striking cymbals and performing cham
(religious dance) in supposed displays of religious practice, but
remaining unable to recognize the Three Jewels (The Buddha, Dharma and
Sangha) in reality would put us in danger of performing self-blessings.
We must be very cautious about it. Buddhism is not revealed merely by
beating drums and striking cymbals, and there is no way such rituals
can enhance devotion. On the other hand, there is a danger of it
becoming a system of ideas without foundation.

So, it is extremely important for everyone not to lose touch with his
or her roots. Within the Tibetan community one can see many instances
everywhere of people who had lost their roots and go about clinging to
branches. To sum up, the noble tradition of the learning of the Tibetan
Buddhist philosophy extant in the time of our ancestors should
primarily be maintained by our monasteries. On that basis, the monks
and the nuns in the monasteries should ensure high quality of study and
training as well as discipline and thereby must be able to maintain the
faith in both teaching and practice. Everyone needs to make efforts to
bring progress within the general public in terms of modern knowledge,
and, on that basis, enable people to gain in-depth understanding of
Buddhism and thereby find devotion in it. This is one of the important
points on which I routinely make appeals.

Over many decades in China, especially during the Cultural
Revolution, when the Four Olds were being destroyed, there was a lot of
persecution, with opposition to religion and culture being total. But
human nature is such that it needs a source of faith and hope, and, as
a result, the number of followers of the Christian faith is witnessing
high growth. The number of people practising the Buddhist faith, too,
is growing likewise. Especially, in the recent period, many people have
been turning their attention to Tibetan Buddhism. Over the last two
decades, there have been many Chinese people paying attention to
Tibetan Buddhism and receiving teachings from Tibetan Lamas, Geshes,
etc. Today, this number is increasing ever more.

Take the case of the seat set up by Khen Rinpoche Jigme Phuntsog. Not
only were there a large number of ethnic Chinese disciples there, but
it also had a flourishing academy. But it suffered unimaginable
decline recently and, ultimately, even the great abbot himself passed
away. This was an immensely sad development. But, still, not only are
there so many ethnic Chinese taking interest in and following Tibetan
Buddhism, but they are also receiving teachings from Tibetan Lamas,
Geshes, etc. These are highly positive developments and I greatly
appreciate them.

The Lamas and Geshes of Tibet, and other teachers and propagators of
Buddhism must all bear in mind that in this period one very important
consideration to be borne in mind is that it would be a grave error to
propagate and teach Buddhism for the purpose of monetary or material
gains or for the purpose of living a life of luxury. Not only that,
when looked at from the point of view of the karmas of merit and sin,
this would amount to merchandizing religion. Practitioners of religion
would not act like that. In any case, concerned persons from all sides
need to exercise caution.

It is possible that some times Lamas and religious masters will feel a
sense of being important and develop an inflated ego on the basis of
very strong faith and hope reposed in them by believers as they make
offerings and pay obeisance. Such developments are not at all good. As
Drom Toenpa has said: Even if one were held in the highest esteem by
everyone/ It is better to hold oneself in subdued humility. One should
never forget this. In my own case too, I have constantly been keeping
this in mind. Whenever people show great obeisance to me by addressing
me as His Holiness, I always humble myself by earnestly recalling thus:
Wherever and whomsoever I go to for whatever purpose,/ by holding
myself the humblest of all,/ may I hold others, in all sincerity,/ to
the highest level. I do this at all times without any relaxation of
effort. You too should think by doing likewise.

To speak to you about a sad aspect in our situation today, recently, in
many countries such as Taiwan, America, Europe, Russia and Mongolia,
there have been cases of fake Tibetan lamas and religious masters doing
irreligious things. In China too, reports have been emerging about fake
Tibetan religious masters coming from Tibet. All this is an extremely
tragic development.

What one witnesses is of well endowed and capable religious masters
remaining in meek withdrawal while there are out there fake religious
masters who, devoid of all sense of shame, and brimming with greed and
talking naked falsehood, wear the mask of religion with great audacity,
carry out irreligious activities and thereby bring disrepute to the
Buddhist religion and faith. In view of this, everyone should exercise
utmost care to gain purposive determination. It is especially important
that the well-endowed religious masters should assume the
responsibility to serve the religion and humanity.